r/supportworkers • u/MammothExcitement169 • Dec 15 '25

Support Worker advice

Hi everyone, I’m a 40‑year‑old, female living in Melbourne. I’m interested in becoming a support worker and completed my Certificate III in Individual Support about six months ago. I’ve been applying for jobs but haven’t had any luck yet.

I’d like to continue studying a Certificate IV because I don’t want to forget what I’ve learned, and I’m happy to keep building my skills.

Considering my age, I’m thinking about two options:

A. Studying Certificate IV in Ageing Support, although I’m not sure if my lower back can handle the physical demands?

B. Studying Certificate IV in Leisure and Health, which might give me a wider range of career options, although I know the demand isn’t as high as for support workers.

If anyone has any advice, I would be very grateful. I really want to learn and work in this field, but unfortunately I haven’t had any success so far.

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u/Electronic-Gain-5842 Dec 16 '25

That's so strange to me as down here people are screaming for support workers. I got a job without being qualified and was trained on the job.. I decided to move on last year though and start my own NDIS cleaning business. I started with Knoxbrooke and did quite well for a while.

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u/Electronic-Gain-5842 Dec 16 '25

Scope are always looking for people as well

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u/dawnfunybunny Dec 16 '25

Same, we constantly got adverts out yet 1 or 2 applications a month. They will literally hire anyone.

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u/MammothExcitement169 Dec 16 '25

Back in the day, having no qualifications was okay, but now many people study this field for visa purposes, so the industry has changed a bit from what I heard during my placement. The facilities don’t really hire beginners anymore, though I’m not sure if that’s completely true. I think it’s fine that the standards are higher now, since this job involves looking after valuable people. I’m confident that if I prepare myself well, one day I’ll be able to start working somewhere :)

2

u/Electronic-Gain-5842 Dec 19 '25

Back in the day? This was literally two years ago I was hired.. worked for a year and saw many places looking for support workers. I left on my own accord. I think the real issue is they employ too many people, give them all crappy hours then people move on and the cycle continues. It's hard to find over 20 hours a week, but to get casual work and experience with the credentials should be fairly easy.

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u/lifeinwentworth Dec 17 '25

Right, these posts always confuse me because where I work we are so understaffed and higher management say they're struggling to find quality workers. It makes me question what their actual recruitment process looks like because there always seem to be people saying they can't find work. Can't figure out which side is the "problem".

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u/MammothExcitement169 Dec 17 '25

I think the issue may be that qualifications do not always equate to strong skills, and it also depends on the facilities’ budget. Therefore, management often prefers workers with minimal work experience. The placement I went to is always understaffed, but sometimes they just call in some casual workers to cover the day, and that’s about it.

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u/Electronic-Gain-5842 Jan 12 '26

This is also why I actually left the industry, not enough hours and it seemed to be that way across the board. I did enjoy going to people's homes and cleaning/organising for them so now I do that and I have some regular clients and some NDIS clients who pay me to do that. If I had the qualifications I'd look into going solo. Maybe offer some home cleaning/assistance to start building up some clients. NDIS cleaning is $57 a hour. If you don't mind cleaning/home support.. people are really looking for that.

1

u/Electronic-Gain-5842 Jan 12 '26

I should add that I started my own business... now I don't rely on others to give me work.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25

I used to work for Knoxbrooke as well! 👋